Hundreds Evacuated From Liberia

U.S. military helicopters had evacuated 82 Americans and more than 300 other foreigners from Liberia as of Wednesday, but officials said that amid continuing fighting other Americans were having difficulty reaching the fortified U.S. Embassy compound where the flights are originating.

With the capital, Monrovia, still tense despite a partly effective cease-fire that began late Tuesday night, the U.S. government pledged to evacuate all Americans who want to leave the nation torn by civil war.

“Our first priority is the evacuation of American citizens,” State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said. “We are assisting the nationals of other countries on a space-available basis.”

Burns said the U.S. Embassy, reinforced by Navy SEAL commandos, will remain open until all American civilians who want to go have been able to do so. After that, the Clinton administration will decide whether embassy staff should be evacuated.

Six years of civil war in the poor West African nation, which was founded by freed American slaves, have killed more than 150,000 people and left perhaps 10 times that many homeless.

U.S. officials have said there is no evidence that the seven warring factions, which until earlier this year were abiding by a power-sharing arrangement in advance of elections, are targeting foreigners.

During the first 24 hours of the evacuation, officials said the evacuees were flown to neighboring Freetown, Sierra Leone. Permitted to take only one suitcase each, they had to leave most of their personal possessions behind.

Burns said many of the almost 400 Americans remaining in Liberia had been unable to reach the embassy.

“Obviously people are safer, sometimes, staying in their homes . . . rather than trying to make the trek to the embassy,” Burns said. “We believe that all Americans are safe, and we want to make sure that they remain safe.”

News agency accounts from Monrovia reported a chaotic situation.

Associated Press said African peacekeepers patrolled parts of the capital after the country’s warring factions reached a cease-fire to end four days of fierce fighting, although armed thugs roamed the streets, looting homes and shops.

But Reuters news agency reported that sporadic bursts of heavy gunfire continued to crackle across Monrovia.

Burns said U.S. Ambassador William Milman reported in a cable to Washington that it was impossible to determine whether the cease-fire had taken hold, and he characterized the situation in Monrovia as “tense.”

The Pentagon was ferrying evacuees to Freetown in 25-passenger helicopters because Monrovia’s airport is too badly damaged to handle large airplanes. Burns said the slow pace of the evacuation seemed adequate because all Americans in the country appeared to be safe.

Burns said the embassy staff knows where most of the remaining Americans are but had no plans at the moment to send military teams out to help them reach the compound.

The contingent of 18 SEALs is needed for embassy security, officials said.

“When these helicopters leave the embassy compound, if there are spaces available--and there have been on all the flights--we are filling those spaces with foreigners,” Burns said.

Besides the Americans, the other evacuees have been citizens of Egypt, the Philippines, Britain, Australia, Italy, Ireland, Greece, South Africa, Canada, France, Guinea, Sweden, Germany and Ghana.

The latest fighting began Saturday when the ruling Council of State attempted to arrest warlord Roosevelt Johnson on suspicion of murder after a deadly clash between Johnson’s backers and a rival militia. The latest cease-fire called for Johnson to turn himself in. He said Wednesday that he had no intention of doing so.